AZ Queen Bee & Zak's Chocolate: Chocolate Creamed Honey

This Chocolate Creamed Honey collaboration between Zak's Chocolate and AZ Queen Bee Honey is not the first chocolate honey I have come across. My seven year old review of CC Pollen Co.'s Chocolate Honey certainly takes me down memory lane. It's weird to think of a time when I didn't buy local honey, and I don't shop at Whole Foods anymore (because of, you know, Amazon). Time takes us on many paths, and the habits we have today aren't necessarily the same as those of yesterday.

Now you might expect for there to be little room for variation between two chocolate honeys; however, such is not the case. They're quite different.

Honey varies not just based on how much it's been processed but also on things like how old it is and what temperature it's currently at. CC Pollen's was pretty stiff, but Queen Bee's is more the texture of caramel. I used to favor buying creamed honey for this very texture; it's sweet and smooth while also still being easier to spread with a spoon or knife than liquid honey (which you kind of have to drizzle). This one is probably especially soft because I keep my home warm (my bearded dragon does not complain).

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's start off with the jar. The jelly jar shape lets you know this is a jelly-like product (Queen Bee also makes their creamed honey in plain, blueberry, strawberry, and lemon). The black and gold label is classy and sleek enough to make this an elegant gift. Birthday present, hostess gift, friendship offering. Or also a treat for yourself.

Opening the jar reveals a rich and strong aroma. It smells of honey but also more strongly of chocolate than I'd expected. I'd say that carries true to taste, as well. It could just be memory, but I don't recall ever having a chocolate honey that tasted this much like chocolate. To clarify: the only ingredients here are honey and cocoa powder. A good helping of cocoa powder, too, it would seem. You can see the specks of it, too, if you look at a thin layer of the honey against the right background. So there is genuine chocolate flavor here rather than artificial chocolate flavoring.

I spread it out on some toast first, one half more thickly and one more thinly for the picture (not that any of these pictures look much enticing; I have not discovered the secret to photographing spreads). Honestly, you can go either way. If you're limiting your sweets, a little of this does go a long way. But spreading thickly is fun, too. Because the chocolate is fairly strong and the honey is incredibly rich and sweet, this makes for a fair substitute for chocolate spreads. It's incredible by the spoonful, too.

I did a little experiment, too. When I make hot chocolate, I just use a little cocoa powder and some honey (usually some cinnamon, too). So what would happen if you added a big spoonful of this chocolate honey to some heated milk/non-milk? I had to find out for you. The effect is like a light milk chocolate hot chocolate. There is just enough cocoa to give a mild chocolate flavor, and of course the honey acts as sweetener. It was an enjoyable beverage and so I'd recommend at least trying it once if you're curious, but I only did it once because it seemed a shame to dilute this spread rather than enjoy the full force of its flavor.

A culinary treat is what this is. You don't have to get creative. Simple bread is just fine. But I'm sure the foodies would enjoy putting together tasting boards with it. And you have the benefit of knowing exactly what is in it and also knowing that it comes from two great small businesses.

Clove & Hive Honey Sticks

I did have a chance to visit the Renaissance Festival on I think the first weekend of March before it had to close up early. This was the first year in which I was actually considering going a second time, how about that? So I thought I'd take a moment in which we can all reminisce about novelties by sharing my thoughts on the honey sticks that I got there from The Clove and Hive.

Usually honey sticks are either plain or flavored--so when we see honey sticks set out with different labels, we expect those labels to say things like Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, etc. So at first glance some people might be a little taken aback to see labels like Avocado and Eucalyptus. But these aren't that type of honey stick, remember: those aren't what the honey has been flavored with, those are the plants that the bees were hanging around when making their honey.

Isn't that fun? Usually our honey choices are limited to spring blooms, fall blooms, clover, citrus, or desert blooms here in the Southwest. Things like that. So getting this range of origins to explore in honey is like taking it into chocolate or wine tasting boundaries--or just making a fun game out of honey sticks.

There were twelve flavors, visible in either light or dark color.

Star Thistle is sweet and light and golden. Buckwheat is rich and dark, reminding me of farmland and open air and plants. Meadowfoam was light and sweet in a floral way; I felt like a hummingbird drinking its nectar. Wildflower is rich and syrupy, while Orange is light and golden.

Coffee is richer, almost bitter if honey could be bitter; its sweetness is deeper and paler. Eucalyptus is light and sweet with a spring in its step and some richness to it. Avocado is one of the darker-colored honeys and it tastes thicker and more syrupy, almost like agave nectar or molasses but lighter and sweeter than molasses.

The Dark Buckwheat is very rich, like leather and liquor but with a sweet core because once again, it's still honey. Blackberry is mild in flavor with a floral tone. Mojave Buckwheat somehow has both richness and lightness, so rich yet also mild; it would make a great standard honey. And Organic Clover is light with an earthy undertone that makes it almost slightly bitter; the floral tone of its sweetness reminds me somewhat of the Blackberry.

Ah, I love when foods offer so much variation. Whatever you do, don't buy the generic honey bears. Whether you find some cool flavors or just get the spring blooms or just buy whatever local honey you see without even reading all the details, treat yourself to some good honey on a daily basis. And when you do get a chance to try out some cool honey sticks from Clove & Hive or someone else, go for it. The simple pleasures make life sweet.

CC Pollen Co.: Chocolate Flavored Honey

Within the last year or so, I've converted to buying local honey. I figured that was one product that it would be easy to make the commitment with, given that even the tiniest farmers markets have a honey table. Then I started going for raw honey, which tends to be more expensive. But it's so much richer in flavor that once you start down the raw honey path, it's hard to go back--especially to the golden goo the average store sells that I'm not sure is even honey anymore. 

When I go to Whole Foods, I like to look around. Sometimes that's the only way you'll find the right products--or the fun products. In the honey section, my eyes alighted on this container of chocolate honey. I kept eyeing it, but decided it would have to wait given its nine or ten dollar price tag. And I already had plain honey at home. 

CC Pollen Co. was on the "local" shelves, but it was obviously only for the chocolate that I bought this. Nowhere on the container does it say exactly where the honey is from, so I wasn't going to trust the Whole Foods idea of local. Visiting the company's website, however, brings more vague information. Whereas I'm getting used to hearing such good things about local honey (like that it will help with allergies), CC Pollen believes that honey should come from a variety of plants and regions in order to create a "balanced nutritional profile." So while some of the honey probably does come from Arizona, it is also blended with honey from other states. 

This is all good and well if you're buying CC Pollen on a regular basis because you consider their products healthy. But how does this particular product (one of many flavors, in fact) function based purely on its flavors? It all depends on what you're used to eating. If you spread Nutella on your toast every morning and have never had raw honey, this could take some getting used to. Being raw honey, it's very rich and thick in flavor. When putting it on toast, at first, I added only a thin layer. Now that I've gone through half the jar, I find myself adding more. It doesn't taste like chocolate in the sense of eating a chocolate bar or perhaps even of eating Nutella. The chocolate is an accent on top of the honey, adding just a spritz of originality. 

Because the honey is thick, you can scoop it out with a knife and it becomes much like a natural version of Nutella (minus the hazelnut, of course). It's honey, but it's also a chocolate spread. Toast (with Scottsdale-made bread), butter, and chocolate honey become ever so much more wholesome and delicious than Pop-Tarts ever were. I probably wouldn't buy this honey on a regular basis, but it wins as an occasional purchase.